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You are building a fence, not the space shuttle. Learn to cut the saddles with a torch, with or without a pattern. By the end of the first acre you will be cutting saddles in no time and thinking what was so hard about this.

Remember, your fit-up does not have to be perfect. Yes, the better the fit-up, the easier the welding. But 100% perfection is not critical on the saddles.

A company called Heck Industries makes a manual pipe notcher it costs about 500.00 and will do 1.2 & 2 inch pipe. use alot instead of our abrasive belt notcher made by Linder Industries unfortunatly belts cost 30.00 each and use only for sloped rails.

The cheapest and easiest method is to get one of those Harbor Freight drill attachments and buy the appropriate size hole saw. The hole saw will cut a relatively clean notch and it will fit good enough. I use this method to make chain link fence panels and gates for kennels using 1 3/8 top rail.

The lathe notching I've seen done used an end mill chucked in the lathe rather than a hole saw. I've never tried either method on my lathe.

I only do hole saws on pipe when the radius is important and the wall thickness makes for a difficult bevel with the cutoff wheel (small diameter AL heavy wall tube to a large diameter tube radius and being tigged). Otherwise, it's so much faster to just knock the corners out of the tube and get to welding. Like has been said, once you do a half dozen or so, it becomes second nature.

Syncrowave 250DX
Invison 354MP
XR Control and 30AAirco MED20 feederThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 81Smith O/A rigAnd more machinery than you can shake a 7018 rod at

I have built pipe and sucker rod fence part time for years and as people have said.......it aint no one day affair. I bought a couple of collars from the welding supply. one is for 2 7/8 pipe and one is for 2 3/8 pipe. one end is round so you can close it around the pipe and cut it off square and the other end has saddles on each side so you can mark out the saddle you need for the top rail. once you mark the saddle its easy to see where you are suppose to cut. drill stem is often rusty and has had some substance in it that causes the torch to pop and slag to run. i usually piont my torch down inside the pipe for a few seconds before cutting to try and burn off some of the stuff inside. good luck..

Pipe Fencing

Welding Supply Stores Sell Lay Out Jig For Different Size Pipe And Also For 90 45 Degrees Check It Out Small Tip Would Help Also Aim The Tip Away From The Piece You Are Using The Slag Will Stick To Drop

Hello Bushman!

I cannot STRESS enough that you must try the chop saw method that Fusion King suggested before attempting anything else! It works slick!!! even though I thought I used a different angle, but I'm sure his right, because it's been a few years since my project where I utilized this method. For some reason I thought I used 35 degree's (????), but regardless, you'll fine tune the angle that works the best, especially with the wall thickness of your drill pipe. but trust me, if this method doesn't work for you, I'll come over help ya with your project & that should speak volumes! PM me if you're confused on what we're talking about. Good luck to you! Handirod